Making layer cake with lemon filling, sweetened whipped cream for book club dessert. Cake layers are flat and sunken..How to rescue?

I love happy endings.

So delighted to hear it worked out well!

Thanks to all. The cake was a success. And actually looked and cut like a cake, The time in the fridge after filling and wrapping repaired the layers that were in pieces as well as those that were sunken. And the whipped cream icing made it heavenly. I do love foodpickle.

Wait--book club! Tell them this is how Jane Austen did it.

And call it a katiecookstoo trifle--a new and wonderful version of an oldie. With lemon and whipped cream, nobody will care. But they will be impressed with your creativity.

Thanks Pittsburgh. What good advice. So now 2 cakes in the frig,setting up and waiting to be iced this p.m., instead of in the trash.

Go ahead and fill the layers with the lemon filling then tightly wrap the whole thing in plastic wrap--you should be able to gently press and even out the layers a bit and sort of re-form the cake. You can then invert the cake, up-side-down to flatten the top, leaving it in the fridge overnight. Tomorrow, unwrap and ice. Your cake will be lovely, dense and moist. Yum.

Thanks Amanda, Thanks actually what the recipe calls for. Your right the whipping cream should cover the rough edges and I guess if it falls apartm, I'll pretend it's a trifle!

I'd use the whipped cream to ice the cake. It's forgiving, can fill in large cake pot-holes, etc and will make all its problems go away beneath a drift of fluffy cream. Only thing is you can't ice it too far in advance. I'd do it 30 minutes before and keep it in the fridge.